lessons in physics

We’ve had this dumb extra tire that we’ve been meaning to recycle for a number of years. Out it came again when cleaning out the garage, and I suggested that the boys roll the tire down the alley and back again since it was such a lovely day outside. Often they need encouragement to physically move their bodies, and the encouragement comes in the form of rather unusual tasks such as this. So things started off fine…

…and then we got to the other end of the alley which has a rather steep downhill to the street. As we approached I said we’d stop at the top of the hill and turn around to walk back home, but then Ryan decided he’d wait at the bottom of the hill and Sam would push the tire down the hill and then Ryan would catch it before it rolled into the street.

Enter a few laws of physics, which must involve gravity or momentum or some such…

By the time the tire reached the bottom of the alley hill, it had reached such a velocity that it was impossible for an almost 8 year old to even come close to “catching” the speeding tire. I yelled for Ryan to move out of the way- it was a near hit, but he jumped aside just in time to watch the tire roll across the sidewalk, into the street, jump the curb on the other side, and continue down the large, grassy hillside leading to Minnehaha Creek. There were some people around- a walker, a jogger, and some others hanging around. No one else seemed to think a random tire rolling down a hill towards a creek was anything out of the ordinary, but to me it was seriously the funniest thing ever and I was cracking up laughing. Ryan was really stressed out that this was BAD and that we were going to get in TROUBLE and that people WOULDN’T LIKE that we were doing this. And then suddenly the tire appears to be crossing the bridge (it didn’t) and then before we knew it the tire was in the creek skidding across the frozen ice. It came to rest at the opposite bank.